Chautauqua Park Bears

Boulder's Chautauqua Park is over run with bears!

But don't worry; they're friendly bears!

Friendly, colorful bears waiting for a hug and a photo!

These fun bear statues are part of Chautauqua's annual Art in the Park event. Fifteen colorfully painted fiberglass bears can be found throughout the historic campus. They make for a fun little treasure hunt, and if you've been here a while you'll know that I'm a big fan of statue treasure hunts. In the past we've enjoyed searching for the heart statues in San Francisco, the lobster statues in Plymouth, the bison statues around Salt Lake City, and the prairie dogs right here in neighboring Superior. 

Each one of these fun bears was painted by a different artist. Let's take a look at them...

Cartoon Heart Valentines Box DIY

Ok, so Valentine's Day is over for another year and I'm a little behind with posting this DIY, but rather than think of it as being late, let's call this post inspiration for next year, shall we?

This Valentine's Day I'm down to just one kid celebrating with their class. That means less work for me, but it was also quite the downer knowing that my years of helping the kids with creative projects is coming to an end. Only three more years of class Valentines left. 

This year we kept the valentines themselves quite simple. Mathilde handed out packs of Pocky with a simple label saying "Valentine, let's stick together". Get it? Pocky sticks? You can find the template for the labels here. We did put a bit more effort into the Valentines Box though.

Mathilde has been quite enamored with the cartoon style cakes that have been all over social media lately. You know the type - they're brightly colored with black outlines that give the impression of a two dimensional cartoon when view from certain angles. Luckily she wanted her Valentines box to look like a two dimensional cartoon rather than a cake - which would've been much more time consuming to create. Ooh... a cake Valentines box would be pretty cool though, right?

Valentine's Day Round Up

Valentine's Day is almost here again!

While I'm not really a fan of lovey-dovey mooshy things, I am a fan of any holiday or event that gives me a chance to get creative, and Valentine's Day is one such day!

Now that Lola has moved up to middle school, I'm down to just one kid celebrating Valentine's Day with their class. Only three more years worth of making Valentine's boxes and goodies for classmates. 

I'm looking forward to getting creative with Mathilde and can't wait to show you what we create, but in the meantime, I'm sharing a look back at all the different things we'd made for Valentine's Day in the past...

A Look Back at 2022

How is it nearly the end of January 2023 already? Seriously, where has the month gone?

It feels like Christmas was just a few days ago, but it was actually over a month ago already. And that means it's been a month since I posted on here. Oops.

Let's get back to it with a round up of everything that happened in 2022. Just a short post, right? Wrong! You know I couldn't write a short post if my life depended on it - and especially not if it's a round up of a whole year's worth of adventures!

Anyway, enough babbling; let's take a look at 2022 month by month...

15 Holiday Events Still on in Denver

Christmas may have been and gone for another year, but that doesn't mean that the holiday fun is over.

Many popular holiday exhibitions and attractions in and around Denver run through to the end of the year or even longer, so if you haven't had your fill of holiday magic yet, you're in luck!

Today I'm sharing all the best holiday attractions that are still open for a little longer yet. I've sorted them by closing date to make it easy to see what's still open without having to read all of the details first.

Let's take a look...

Camp Christmas 2022

Christmas has come and gone for another year, but I still have a few holiday posts to share with you.

Just like last year and 2019, one of my favorite holiday events was Camp Christmas. It has finished for the season, but I still wanted to share our visit here on the blog - inspiration for next holiday season, right?

So, just what is Camp Christmas? It's an immersive exhibition that takes visitors back to the holidays of the past. Think lots of kitsch holiday decor from the 60s and 70s, tinsel trees, twinkling light displays, and pun trees. It's colorful, it's campy and it's everything I dream the holidays could be!

Lola, Mathilde and I headed to Camp Christmas on Tuesday before the cold, cold weather hit on Wednesday night. We were excited to see many of our favorite installations from the past including the carousel, the pun trees, and all the fun campy vintage decorations, as well as some new exhibits such as the bus below and the interactive guilt repellant spray. The kids had fun blasting that one in each other's faces!

 

Let's take a look at all the fun...